LIAT to cut Carib jobs

Regional airline, LIAT, says it will go ahead with plans to close offices across the Caribbean in a move that is likely to affect nearly 100 employees.

President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), Chester Humphrey, who is also head of the Council of LIAT Trade Unions, told the Caribbean Media Corporation that the matter had been discussed at a meeting here on Tuesday involving the airline's board of directors and unions representing the regional workers.

Humphrey told CMC that the staff cuts were inevitable as the airline grapples to survive in the current environment, and that the Antigua-based airline has insisted that given its overall performance, the restructuring exercise which would result in a savings of $3 million is urgent.

Survivability central

Humphrey said that the unions are now seeking to ensure that affected workers get a fair deal.

"What we have to ensure as trade unions is that the process is fair, is transparent, is objective and that we can cushion the effects of the workers. That's our responsibility and I can tell you that we are grasping that responsibility firmly with both hands," he told CMC.

But Humphrey acknowledged that there were limits "in terms of what we can do".

"Survivability of the airline has always been a central question anytime you talk about LIAT and it is even more so now, given the very financial and economic situation that we face within the region," he added.

Humphrey said that while the unions regretted the decision to lay off the workers, they would, however, ensure that the airline, whose three main shareholder governments are Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda and St Vincent and the Grenadines, would adhere to best practices as they negotiate severance packages.

"The meeting concluded with a broad realisation that it appears the closure of these offices is inevitable. The unions had submitted, sometime in the early part of last year, a protocol governing best practices in the context of retrenchment and loss of jobs.

"The company did counter with a document, but as I said, the process was interrupted by a request to meet with the board and it has taken us this long to meet. So where we are at the moment is that talks are due to resume on the best practice principles which would govern that (severance), and then, of course, there are the individual trade unions which the company will now have to meet consistent with the requirements of the individual collective agreements," he added.

LIAT has made no statement on the issue.

- CMC